Reenforced shoe heel



Sept. 29, 1925.

P. J. LOVETT RBENFORCED SHOE HEEL Filed Nov. 9, 1923 glllllllllllllllu [NVENTOFP 7? .f L oref/ ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 29, 1925.

U N l-TED i STATES PATENT PATRICK- J. LOVETT, OF NO'RIH-I LITTLE 'ROGKfi ARKANSAS, ASSIGNO-R OF" ONE-HALF TO CHAR-LES F. GUNNINGHA'M, OE LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS.

REENFORCED sacs HEEL.

Application filed November 9, 1923. Serial N01 673,705;

To all whom it may con-corn:

North Little Rock, Arkansas, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Reenforced Shoe Heels, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to'inalze and use the same.

This invention relates to shoe heels, and has for its main object to provide a reenforced shoe heel. that embodies some of the desirable characteristics and features of the heel described in my prior Patent No, 1,365,519, dated January 11, 1921, and which is so constructed that there is little liability of its being split by the nails or brads used to attach it to the shoe, of which it forms a part.

Another object is to provide an inexpensive wooden heel for womens shoes, of such construction that it is not liable to split when it is in use or when it is being attached to a shoe.

To this end I have devised a shoe heel that is composed of a plurality of horizontallydispo-sed members permanently connected together, preferably layers of wood arranged so that the grain of one layer extends at an angle to the grain of an adjacent layer, and a vertically-disposed reenforcing element imbedded in the member or layer that constitutes the main body portion of the heel.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a perspective view of a. shoe heel constructed in accordance with my invention.

Figure 2 is a side elevational view of said heel; and

Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view, taken on the line 83 of Figure 2, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

Referring to the drawings which illustrate the preferred form of my invention, A, B and C designate three horizontally-disposed members arranged one above the other and permanently connected together so as to produce a heel whose upper end is formed by the member C and whose lower end or bottom portion is formed by the member A. The bottom member A preferably consists of a block of wood whose grain extends horizontally; the top member 0 preferably con- 7 veneer, preferably sists of a block of wood whose grainerten'ds iorizont 'ally and in the same direction as the grain of the member A, and the intermediate member B consistsof a-bloclrof wood whose grain extends horizontally but 'at substantially right angles to thegrain of the members A and G, said members or layers or wood being permanently connected together by glue or any other suitable adhesive in such a way that they co-operate with each other to produce a laminated woodenheel whose upper end portion will not bespl-itby the brads or nails that are usedto' attach the heel to the shoe of which-the heel forms a part.

The bottom member A ofkthe's heel isreei1- forced and strengthened by a'vertically-disposed teen-forcing element D that extends lengthwise of the heel and terminates flti'sltwitli the breast and with the rear side of the heel. The reenforcing element D can be formed in various ways without departing from the spirit of my invention, but I prefer to form said reenforcing element either from a solid wooden wed 'e or from a strip of three-ply veneer, composed of three layers of wood 00, 3 and 2 glued or otherwise permanently connected together and arranged so that the grain of one layer crosses or extends at an angle to the grain of an adjacent layer. The reenforcing element D is permanently combined with the bottom member A of the heel by means of glue or some other suitable adhesive and is preferably arranged in a vertically-disposed groove in the member A that extends downwardly from the upper end of said member to a point adjacent the bottom or lower end of the heel, as shown in Figures 1 and 3.

A heel of the above construction, when made in the form of a French heel or high heel for use on Womens shoes, is eXceptionally strong, owing to the fact that the memher A which constitutes the contracted portion of the heel is reenforced and strengthened by a vertically-disposed element D imbedded in same and arranged at right angles to the grain of said member. There is little liability of such a shoe heel being split by the nails that are used to attach it to a shoe, owing to the fact that the upper end portion of the heel into which the nails are driven is formed by a plurality of layers of wood disposed in such a relation that the grain of one layer extends at an angle to the grain of an adjacent layer.

Such a shoe heel can be manufactured at a low cost, and while it is immaterial how the parts of same are combined or assembled, I prefer, in practice, to form a longitudinally-disposed groove in a long strip of wood, arrange a piece of three-ply veneer or the like in said groove and then combine said strip by means of glue or the like with two other strips of wood, the intermediate one of which has its grain extending at an angle to ,the grain of the strips between Which it is interposed. This built up structure is then cut transversely into blocks, and each block then put in a shaping machine and finished into a heel of the desired shape or outline.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A shoe heel composed of a plurality of superimposed wooden members arranged with the grain in one member extending at an angle to the grain of an adjacent memher, the bottom member constituting the main body portion of the heel, and a vertically-disposed reenforcing element in said 2. A shoe heel, comprising a Wooden bottom member whose grain extends substantially horizontally, said member having a groove extending from the breast to the rear side of the heel and terminating above the lower end of said member, a verticallydisposed reenforcing element in said groove formed from a piece of multi-ply veneer and having its front and rear ends terminating flush with the breast and rear side of the heel, respectively, a top member formed from a piece of wood whose grain extends in substantially the same direction as the grain in said bottom member, and an intermediate member between said top and bottom members arranged in engagement with the top edge of said reenforcing element and formed from a piece of Wood whose grain crosses the grains of said top and bottom members.

PATRICK J. LOVETT. 

